Fallon & Middlegate Station, NV (5/20/2020)

After a week in Carson City, I wanted to re-visit Mono Lake in CA, but there were no open RV parks in that area.  Instead, I headed for central NV to check out rock art sites, taking a longer route than required in order to stop at Grimes Point Archeological Site near Fallon.  At this place, boulders scattered over a hillside contain some very old petroglyphs, perhaps as much as 8000 years old.  My route started on U.S. 50, known as "the loneliest road in America".

The basalt boulders, covered with "desert varnish", made a decent surface for pecking or carving figures.  You'll notice that some figures are so old that they have been re-covered, making them difficult to see.  Overall, the figures here are unlike most rock art I've seen, having little of the more common animal and human drawings.  Here are a few examples:

Mother Nature had some impressive art on display, too, mostly in the form of colorful lichens, which can sometimes be as much as 2000 years old.

Nearby are some caves, including one with rock art called Hidden Cave.  Unfortunately, this cave can be visited only by guided tour, offered just two days each month.  This was not one of the designated tour days.

Many people think of Nevada as a large, flat desert with Las Vegas at one end and Reno at the other.  In reality, depending on how one defines "mountainous",  Nevada has a valid claim for the title of "most mountainous" state.  Alaska has the most mountains and the highest mountains, Colorado has the most "fourteeners" and the highest mean elevation, while West Virginia has the highest percentage of mountainous land.  However, Nevada has the highest number of mountain ranges with more than 320 named ranges.  Nevada also has the largest number of mountains at 10,000 feet elevation or above.

Driving the interior of Nevada, it's easy to see the large number of mountain ranges, many of then snow covered still on May 20th, due to their high elevation.

 I was a little surprised to see large sand dunes near Highway 50 at a place called Sand Mountain Recreation Area.  You may not be able to see them, but a large number of vehicles were parked at the foot of the dunes while the owners played with their dune buggies and other OHVs.  As many as 70,000 visitors each year come to play on these dunes, which are up to 600 feet high.  In addition to vehicles, sand sailing and sand boarding have become popular activities here.

Eventually, I turned off the "loneliest road" at a place called Middlegate Station.  In the 1860s, there was a Pony Express station here where riders changed horses.  The Pony Express only lasted a couple years, but the station continued activity as a stage and freight station.  When Highway 50, also known as the Lincoln Highway, became the first paved cross-country highway, the station was restored as a bar, cafe and motel.  More importantly, it had the only gas available for 50 miles or more in any direction.

I regret not knowing more of this history while I was there.  It would be nice to have my own photos of this historic place, but I've borrowed some from the Travel Nevada tourism web site, since they appear to be in the public domain. 

I don't think I would have tried the specialty of the cafe, a Middlegate Monsterburger.

Approaching the town of Tonopah, I passed over several recent roadway repairs of damage caused by the earthquake five days earlier.  The 6.5 magnitude quake occurred just 35 miles north of town and caused cracks and sinking in the highway.  We felt the quake in Carson City as my MH rocked from side to side over one to two minutes.  In Tonopah, light fixtures and such swung during the event but there was no significant damage.

Tired from my drive, I chose to stop in Tonopah and investigate this town in the middle of the Nevada wilderness.